How Long Does It Usually Take You To Make Dinner?

Here we are on Monday with five nights of dinners staring us in the face. A weeknight dinner can be a tricky thing, something that gets squeezed into that narrow time slot between getting home from work and the desperate desire to just kick back and relax. We're curious — how long does it usually take you to make dinner? Have you streamlined your cooking to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible? Or do you linger over meal prep with a glass of wine?

Here's another question: is there a discrepancy between how long you expect dinner to take and how long it actually ends up taking? I, for one, am famous for promising dinner will be ready in 15 minutes and actually serving it an hour later — never an ideal situation no matter how delicious dinner ends up tasting.

Do you have ways that you've cut down on dinner-prep time? What's your advice for making this time of the day go as smoothly as possible?

Emma is the recipe editor for The Kitchn and a graduate of the Cambridge School for Culinary Arts. She is the author of True Brews and Brew Better Beer (Spring 2015). Check out her personal blog for more cooking stories.